Figure Out What's Draining Your Droid's Battery

I should have posted this up a few days ago, but I was running my settings just to verify. For a while, I had issues where my Droid only lasted about 9-12 hours before dying. I couldn't figure it out - I had GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth off. I had the screen brightness set to the absolute minimum for the entire day. I even installed Locale to turn off AutoSync automatically for 5 hours a day. Still, I kept getting horrible battery life (at least nothing close to what was boasted in the Droid specs).

Then I found Spare Parts in the market place. Before I installed the app, I thought it was Gmail and the Calendar that were draining my battery. I even removed all of my widgets to help the Android. After I installed the app, I found the culprit - Meebo IM (or any instant messaging client for that matter). Anyway, I solved the issue by leaving myself logged off of Meebo or eBuddy, and using Advanced Task Killer to ensure they are "dead." The results? Over 1-2 days of battery life, with extensive phone use, text messaging, internet use, Market use, some music playing, and maybe some Google Maps Navigation.

If you need to figure out what's killing your battery, download "Spare Parts" from the Market. Once it is installed:
1.) Open the app
2.) Click on "Battery History"
3.) Click on "Partial wake usage"

This should then reveal what app or service is consuming the most resources when your phone is idle. Give it a try. It's not just a battery app, but also a settings app. I hope this helps some of you.

Good post. I use this app and it has helped me greatly. I found that WeatherBug elite was following my location at all times, hence draining my battery. One visit to the settings of that app fixed that! Highly recommended app.

I haven't downloadewd the app yet...but ever since I installed meebo a couple of days ago...I have noticed my battery getting worse...even when I wasn't signed in...time to get rid of that mofo

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I will only use is periodically here and there as it does drain the battery, but it hasn't hindered my battery's performance while not signed on. I would just get the app to see what the culprit might be that is draining the battery, if it isn't meebo. AIM and Yahoo need to come out with legit apps stat.

Thanks for the post...I had forgotten about Spare Parts, appreciate the reminder.

Speaking of reminders. "Missed Reminder" was a full screen wide-bar (left to right) in my Partial Wake Usage list. Nothing else on the list was longer than a millimeter or so...I uninstalled it to see if I notice any change in battery life tomorrow.

I'm at 40% after about 13 hours today, which is "good enough," but wondering how it will be tomorrow after pulling Missed Reminder.

i'm getting about 10-12 hours of battery life (granted I've had it for only 3 days). But there is nothing that uses an extensive amount except for the Android System, Everything else is barely even visible.

i'm getting about 10-12 hours of battery life (granted I've had it for only 3 days). But there is nothing that uses an extensive amount except for the Android System, Everything else is barely even visible.

Any ideas?

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I would check some settings for your apps. Maybe there is an app that is using gps every once in a while and polling your location? Like weather?

This is interesting and confirms my suspicions about meebo hogging battery life. I have been having same battery problems and narrowed the culprit to meebo as well. while i do use messenger often to chat i still feel too much battery drain from the app itself. Perhaps because i was logged into facebook aim and yahoo maybe it had to keep checking i dont know. Since i use aim the most, i switched from meebo to hello aim and i notice more battery life already however hello aim is showing up as alot on the wake usage in this app, but then again i do use it alot.

This is interesting and confirms my suspicions about meebo hogging battery life. I have been having same battery problems and narrowed the culprit to meebo as well. while i do use messenger often to chat i still feel too much battery drain from the app itself. Perhaps because i was logged into facebook aim and yahoo maybe it had to keep checking i dont know. Since i use aim the most, i switched from meebo to hello aim and i notice more battery life already however hello aim is showing up as alot on the wake usage in this app, but then again i do use it alot.

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Partial Wake Usage is showing you what is running in the background while the screen is off. Stuff that checks and updates things, like weather, or twitter, for example. So if your AIM app is showing up there, its running constantly when your screen is off.

Partial Wake Usage is showing you what is running in the background while the screen is off. Stuff that checks and updates things, like weather, or twitter, for example. So if your AIM app is showing up there, its running constantly when your screen is off.

i use nimbuzz as my im client and when you do explicit exit from the application menu -> exit... it disappears from both running services and ATK. so at least i know that with that perticular application... if i exit out of it i don't need to worry about it.

the more interesting part is the built in GTalk service. it does not show up in ATK but it does in running services. i have no idea why.... i haven't used the gtalk client and i believe that if someone sends me a gtalk message i won't get it... but still... why is it running?

it just seems very user defined as to how long the battery lasts....
Makes me want to pay attention to mine now. I noticed the day after I got my droid and it was fully charged it lasted all day at work and when I got home it was at 50%. Lately my phone pretty much lasts all day but at night when I want to use it it's low and I have to plug it in with that damn short cable. My daily use mostly involves twidroid, internet, gtalk, messaging, music, and a bit of youtube. I rarely use calling (sadly) lol

Maybe we should start up a list of known battery hogs. If the app has settings to mitigate the degree to which it kills the battery, we could add that info to the list.

Seems like the kind of post that might be worthwhile to build out info on and pin to the top of the forums.

- Meebo
- WeatherBug

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Add eBuddy onto that list. I'm starting to get a feeling that pretty much any IM program will kill the battery pretty quickly. It's too bad Yahoo has yet to release an official app in the market (the Hi Yahoo app is not an official release).